Body Image & Appearance Anxiety

The way we perceive our bodies, or our appearance can greatly impact our mental health. While it is appropriate to value hygiene and the way you represent your appearance through choices like hairstyles and clothing, an over focus on appearance can cause a variety of issues including:

  • Fears of judgment and struggling with judgmental thoughts of others

  • Social anxiety, or even avoidance of events if not feeling confident in your appearance

  • Unfair comparisons, constantly sizing others up in comparison to yourself

  • Financial stress (possibly due to excessive spending on clothing, makeup, supplements, diet programs that promise “fast results”, skincare, etc)

  • Avoidance of mirrors, or avoidance of certain types of mirrors or lighting situations

  • “Hiding” in baggy clothing

  • Excessive time spent taking / editing photos

  • Avoidance of being in photos, hiding in the back of photos, avoidance of posting photos of a valued event due to insecurity about your appearance

  • Excessive time spent getting ready (unnecessary wardrobe changes, redoing makeup)

  • Constant dieting or berating yourself for not dieting.

  • Food restriction / binge eating or eating disorders

I aim to help clients discover and develop more neutral thinking about their appearance. I utilize a variety of approaches to uncover sources of automatic negative thoughts about appearance, and a combination of skills and experiential based treatments. Helping clients evaluate and get in touch with their true values is a powerful way to help take the “emotional charge” and importance away from unhelpful appearance messages.

I typically approach body image work from a Health At Every Size (HAES) approach, and will never promote dieting, nor will I guide clients away from their right to body autonomy if they want to make changes to the way they eat or move. If clients align with the HAES approach, we can discuss if Intuitive Eating may be a good fit for you to incorporate as you may also be seeking to heal and make peace with food. I will help you address any internalized fat phobia, overcome painful memories of body shaming, and help you reframe automatic negative thoughts with an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) based approach. For clients struggling with active eating disorders such as Anorexia or Bulimia, I highly recommend my colleague, Michelle Hernandez, LPC who specializes in treating these eating disorders.